The following post may seem a little esoteric, if not absolutely dry, but don’t be intimidated. Bear with me a second as the idea opens up towards the end of this article. Every year, roughly 1.89 billion tons of cement (the main component of concrete) are manufactured. Cement accounts for about 7-8% of all human-generated CO2 emissions (a main ingredient in the recipe for climate change). Here’s what happens: cement is made by burning fossil fuels to heat a limestone and clay powder to 1500 °C. Then, the resulting cement powder is mixed with water and gravel and the invested energy in the powder is released into chemical bonds that form calcium silicate hydrates. Those calcium silicate hydrates bind the gravel to create concrete.

So, the idea goes, human bone could show us how to manufacture concrete with less CO2 emissions. Human bone achieves a similar packing density to concrete at the nanoscale, but with human bone, this packing density is achieved at body temperature with no extra release of CO2. Stated otherwise, bone strength is achieved naturally without having to heat powder at a high temperature, and thus, without the CO2 release. The problem is, however, the hardening of apatite minerals in the bone takes a long time. Say, a month or more.

If you know me, you know I like to read. You name it, I read it. Books. Magazines. Newspapers. Online. Actually, I have a theory on book reading, which goes like this: if you don’t pay reasonable market value for it, you won’t be motivated to read it. It’s like a gym membership. With this in mind, I’ve put together an online shop of sustainable books, The Jetson Green Sustainability Bookstore, in case anyone is searching for good material on environmentalism. There’s a lot out there. Let me know if I left something out that you think merits inclusion. Here are the categories:

This isn’t a money maker for JG, I’ve never made more than $10 /quarter from Amazon…this is more intended to be a resource library for those of us at all levels in the journey towards living and working in a greener way. Again, let me know if I left a good book out. Also, I’ve gotten into Eco-Libris thanks to Victoria-E. Eco-Libris plants a tree for every book that you purchase an offset for. I’m not going to get into the offset controversy, but suffice it to say, I like the idea and will do it from now on.

Previously, I wrote about Greenbridge Developments, which is a mixed-use development in North Carolina expected to receive LEED Gold certification. This development is an incredible example of the business case for green building. They haven’t even broken ground on the development yet, but it’s 2/3 sold out. Here’s the math. There are about 99 units planned at an average price of $650,000 each (not averaging in revenues from the retail space). Wait, is that right? 66 units x $650,000 = $42.9 million? Wow. I’d like to see the estimated cost of construction because these numbers are incredible (again, without even factoring in retail revenues).

Business 2.0 and Erick Schonfeld have produced a video on Greenbridge Developments talking about low-carbon building materials, solar power, C2C, etc. The video is part of the New Disruptors video series available on iTunes. You can also view this episode online here.

Rocio Romero is a 35-year-old designer, manufacturer, and entrepreneur. She’s well known for her minimalist, modern LV Home. Do you know the history behind Rocio Romero? Christy Marshall authored an excellent article on her and her growing business in modern prefab. Romero is a graduate of University of California-Berkeley and Southern California Institute of Architecture (aka SCI-Arc). One of her first designs was a summer house for her parents in Laguna Verde outside of Santiago, Chile. That home was modified slightly and has become the LV Home that we see popping up all over the country. As for pricing, here’s what you can expect: